The younger generation may not have any idea who an ice ball man was. The closest modern day equivalent of the ice ball is the ice kacang which is similar in form and substance, but not shape.
The ice ball was sold at 10 cents during the 1960s. I always patronised a corner stall located at the junction of Albert Street and Queen Street, only a stone’s throw from where I lived. This vicinity had a permanent pasar malam (night market) during that time. The stall was operated by a lone Indian man who wore white all the time – turban, shirt and sarong. (Sorry that I didn’t check out the colour of his underwear.)
When you tell the man, ‘Aneh (brother), ice ball satu (one)’, he would shave the ice using one hand by moving a whole block of ice back and forth on top of a homemade wooden ice-shaver that looked like a stool. But don’t you ever try sitting on the stool because it had a very sharp blade embedded in it:
A piece of folded towel was placed on top of the ice block for better grip and also to prevent his hand from getting too cold, I guess. His other bare hand would be cupped under the stool to catch the ice shavings. Plastic or rubber gloves were unheard of at that time. Halfway through, he would fill the centre of the ice shavings with 2 simple ingredients – sweet red beans and chin chow cubes. Then he would continue shaving (the ice, that is) to cover the ingredients. After that, he would shape the product with both bare hands into an almost perfect white ice ball. To put the finishing touches to this classic dessert, he would ladle on sugar syrup of 3 colours (red, green and brown) and then pour some Carnation milk straight out of a tiny hole punched in the top of the can, meanwhile always rotating the ice ball with the other hand to ensure that the milk ‘went all around the globe’. I would invariably request him to potong (cut) the ice ball into 2 halves so that I could share the joy (and cost) of eating an ice ball with my neighbour’s kid.
The best way to eat an ice ball is to eat it with your bare hands. You put the ball to your lips and suck hard. (I am sorry if you find my language a bit crude here.) When most of the syrup has been sucked out of the ball, you bite into the ice and eat the rest of the ball that way. You can finish the ball in 5-10 mins although you always try to make it last as long as possible. However, in Singapore’s hot weather, 10 mins is about as long as it gets before the ball starts to melt.
Besides selling ice balls, the Indian man also sold cold drinks. He had a very special drink which was transparent and red in colour. It had some tiny fruit seeds that looked like frog eggs to me. (When you bite into the seeds, they crunch delightfully. I never see this fruit nowadays and I don’t know what it is called. Maybe some of my readers can help me out?) By the way, I knew how to get the Indian man to give me some of this flavourful drink for free. This operation required military precision – armed with an empty enamelled mug, I waited for him to close the stall for the day, usually at around 11 pm. Just before he poured the leftover drink from his container into the nearby drain, I intervened and asked pitifully, ‘Aneh, kasi sikit boleh? (Brother, can you spare me a bit?) Most times, I managed to get my free drink this way.
Photo credit: Credit goes out to the shameless author who is proud that he has the resourcefulness to take the above photos recently at Sentosa’s Images of Singapore.
Amendment: I have since found out that the ‘frog eggs’ mentioned above did not come from a fruit but a plant called basil. Those were basil seeds. Please refer to this link on ice kacang and this link describing the basil seed. Here is a photo that shows the basil seeds in water:
12 Responses
Those are basil seeds? I never knew that! I forgot what the local name of the drink is too. Anyone?
My family loves that drink but I couldn’t stop thinking of tadpoles. So whenever there was a jug of it in our fridge, I would avoid opening the fridge door – no matter how hungry I got.
*shudders*
Posted on June 30th, 2006 at 3:28 am
Victor, why you never use my photos of Ipoh ice machine. Dare to call yourself ‘shameless’ some more. Looks like I will also have to blog about it too.
When my Ipoh my sis-in-law learned about my interest in such old objects, she recommended a spot where she saw an Indian man using the manual ice shaver in you first photo. I passed by the place several times but could see him. What a shame.
See the pains we die-hard bloggers go to just to get a good shot for our blogs.
Talking about sugar syrup, in my kampong they used normal sugar. But one day, around 1966, there appeared a chendol stall outside our school (ACS Barker Road) which used the dark brown gula Melaka type syrup. Truly unforgettable! Too bad, nowadays have to watch the calories. Sigh.
Posted on June 30th, 2006 at 8:55 am
Gee now I feel like people of my generation are missing out. Anyone has any idea where we can get one of those colored ice balls and tadpole drink these days?
Posted on June 30th, 2006 at 9:35 am
Tadpole drink still very common in the Malay restaurants in Geylang Serai / Joo Chiat area. It’s called Air Serasih.
Posted on June 30th, 2006 at 9:57 am
Amy, thanks for the name of the drink in Malay. I did a search and found this link:
http://www.nparks.gov.sg/plants/gardening_tips.shtml
So the right spelling of the word should be selasih and the full name of the drink, air biji selasih.
Chun See, Melissa was supposed to take care of your Ipoh photo. It’s ok, you can blog about it too. Nothing like hearing it from the originator.
Posted on June 30th, 2006 at 3:36 pm
Sparklette, to answer your question, read this amusing piece by Makansutra. Written in Dec 1999, presumably by Mr K F Seetoh, it mentions several other yesterday’s hawker fare which are no longer available today:
http://www.makansutra.com/Makanzine/dec99/good_old_days.html
Posted on June 30th, 2006 at 4:03 pm
Hey! Victor,
Cold countries have their snow-balls and hot countries like ours have ice-balls.
Thanks for warming the heart with a cold story — I remember the cold hands after enjoying an iceball and playfully shaking hands with people.
Posted on July 1st, 2006 at 7:32 am
Victor. The Makansutra/Makanzine article is only so-so don’t you think. Your article is much better. Honestly, I think I can do a better one too.
Posted on July 1st, 2006 at 8:20 am
Wee Kiat, so you were just as playful when you were a boy. This is surely one thing that hasn’t change much through the years.
Chun See, you surely made me blush with that undeserved compliment. Doesn’t it surprise you that a shameless person can blush too?
. K F Seetoh is a foodie and he was writing about half a dozen types of yesterday’s food. So it was very much touch and go.
Posted on July 2nd, 2006 at 2:47 pm
saw the ice-ball thingy & im gonna try it out!! always wanted to find it but it seems tat this kind of old traditionial type was not found anymore till I saw this!~
Posted on April 19th, 2007 at 9:29 am
Hi Precious, thanks for leaving a precious comment. Oh really? Where did you see the ice-ball still being sold? Was it in Ipoh where Chun See spotted one? (See his comments posted above on 30 Jun 2006 at 4:55 pm.)
I thought that he might be the very last ice ball man on the face of the earth. Please update us on your experience.
Posted on April 23rd, 2007 at 3:02 am
Hi Precious, I have put up some photos of ice-shaving machines here at my blog.
Posted on April 23rd, 2007 at 3:14 am
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